Moments of brilliance but marred by its length and structure
I didn’t enjoy The Museum of Broken Promises as much as I’d hoped.
I had reasonably high expectations going in, and the concept of a museum curated to showcase items representative of personal loss or sadness, in modern day Paris, was something I was really intrigued by and certainly called out to my sensibilities. Pairing that with Cold War era Prague sounded like an unusual move, but an interesting one.
Unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me, and this wasn’t the book I expected it to be. I think some people will find that this book resonates strongly with them, particularly if you are familiar with any of the primary locations of the novel. The book is incredibly detailed, in both description and historical explanations. However, it felt as though this padded out the book too much, alongside some narrative elements that dragged along occasionally. It felt as though it could have done with a tighter edit. There were some moments within the story that were dramatic and captivating, whereas there were other moments that felt meandering, disjointed and confused. If it had been shorter and more to the point, with clearer distinctions between the different narratives/time jumps, I believe that the message of the novel would have been conveyed more effectively and would have done a better job at pulling me in and keeping me engaged.
I had reasonably high expectations going in, and the concept of a museum curated to showcase items representative of personal loss or sadness, in modern day Paris, was something I was really intrigued by and certainly called out to my sensibilities. Pairing that with Cold War era Prague sounded like an unusual move, but an interesting one.
Unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me, and this wasn’t the book I expected it to be. I think some people will find that this book resonates strongly with them, particularly if you are familiar with any of the primary locations of the novel. The book is incredibly detailed, in both description and historical explanations. However, it felt as though this padded out the book too much, alongside some narrative elements that dragged along occasionally. It felt as though it could have done with a tighter edit. There were some moments within the story that were dramatic and captivating, whereas there were other moments that felt meandering, disjointed and confused. If it had been shorter and more to the point, with clearer distinctions between the different narratives/time jumps, I believe that the message of the novel would have been conveyed more effectively and would have done a better job at pulling me in and keeping me engaged.